Lake Kariba is the world’s largest artificial lake and reservoir by volume. It lies 1,300 kilometres (810 miles) upstream from the mouth of the Zambezi River on the Indian Ocean, along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Lake was filled between 1958 and 1963 following the completion of the Kariba Dam at its northeastern end, flooding the Kariba Gorge on the Zambezi River.
Lake Kariba is Zambia’s undiscovered Riviera! It offers spectacular views, stunning sunsets, great fishing, boating opportunities, water sports, safari on the shoreline, and wonderful relaxing holidays just soaking up the sunshine.
The weather is mostly sunny and fine. It can get quite hot in mid-summer (about January and February), but even mid-winter days (about July) are warm and the nights are balmy.
This is the planet’s largest man-made lake/dam. It is 226 kilometres (km) / 140 miles (mi) long and in places up to 40 kilometres (km) / 25 miles (mi) wide. It covers an area of 5,580 square kilometres (2,150 square miles) and its storage capacity is 185 cubic kilometres (44 cubic miles). The mean depth of the lake is 29 metres (95 feet); the maximum depth is 97 metres (318 feet). It is the world’s largest man-made reservoir by volume, four times as large as the Three Gorges Dam It is also the world’s largest water reservoir by volume. It provides considerable electric power to both Zambia and Zimbabwe and supports a thriving commercial fishing industry.
The sheer size of it makes you forget it’s a dam and in certain places, it almost feels like an ocean! It also has islands with wildlife sprinkled around (Chete and Chinanka are among the largest) and access from the Zambian side is fairly limited – the Zimbabwean side offers more facilities. Chinanka is privately owned and open to guests of the fishing lodge only.
The Zimbabwean town of Kariba was built for construction workers on the lake’s dam, while some other settlements such as Binga village and Mlibizi in Zimbabwe and Siavonga and Sinazongwe in Zambia have expanded to house people displaced by the damming of the river.
The lake’s several islands include Maaze Island, Mashape Island, Chete Island, Sekula, Sampa Karuma, Fothergill, Spurwing, Snake Island, Antelope Island, Bed Island, and Chikanka.
Culled From: Wanderlust Magazine
